Overview
- Conservative MPs have lodged amendments to carve out offences such as rape, assault by penetration, grievous bodily harm, stalking and child sex crimes from early‑release eligibility.
- Labour’s Sentencing Bill enters Commons committee stage on Tuesday with core measures that restrict most sub‑12‑month jail terms and expand tougher community punishments and tagging.
- The legislation creates an earned progression system with minimum release points of 33% for standard determinate sentences and 50% for more serious determinate terms, tied to behaviour.
- Labour says extended determinate and life‑sentence prisoners would not benefit from early progression, countering Conservative claims that many serious offenders are eligible.
- Tory figures assert thousands of rapists and child sex offenders could be released earlier and that up to 43,000 offenders might avoid jail under curtailed short sentences, figures the government disputes in a broader political row.